


Just hold me instead

by ToshiChan



Series: 'Cause I'm only looking for a little peace [3]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Angst, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism, Della Duck returns, Depression, Family Drama, Family Feels, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-10 18:51:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18413819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToshiChan/pseuds/ToshiChan
Summary: Della Duck lands back on earth and the boys are afraid about how she’ll react to everything they’ve become.





	Just hold me instead

**Author's Note:**

> Part 3 in an ongoing series involving various head cannons I have for the triplets. This can be read as a stand alone but I still suggest reading the other two for some context.

For so long, the boys had looked up at the moon without realising just what they were actually looking at. To them, the moon was that cool rock in space that they had to do projects on each year at school. To them, it was a bright light when it was dark at night and things had gotten just a little spooky. They had no way of knowing that the moon had also become the home to the person they missed almost every day, even if they weren’t totally aware of her.

Della Duck.

Now, everything was changing.

It had been an ordinary day for the Duck Family before they’d seen the apparent meteorite. It was an adventure free one since they were recuperating from a particularly rough mission involving Medusa and an ancient prophecy that Dewey had been convinced referred to him. Nobody had gotten seriously hurt but Huey had gotten upset enough over the constant near-misses that everyone had agreed to a day off for his sake. Nobody liked seeing Huey become consumed by his worries and fears. A calm day at home was a small price (and not even a price in Louie’s eyes) to pay for the reassurance that the oldest brother was going to be alright.

Huey, glad for the day off, had snuggled up in a big armchair in one of the many living rooms and was re-reading the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook. Doing this always helped him calm down after certain things stressed him out too much, like potential death situations. He liked going over things he already knew, just in case he’d missed anything previously. It was a calm, repetitive activity. Huey alternated between the pages and the movie that Dewey had put on.

Dewey had wanted to play some games at first but neither of his brothers had seemed keen. Webby had cheered him up by suggesting they put on an action movie and pretend they were the characters. Dewey had readily agreed and now he and Webby were totally absorbed in the world of the latest blockbuster to come out. There were explosions, extreme car chases and a particularly engaging scene with a shark and an underwater trap. Webby had a list out and she was writing down ideas for the future re-enactment she and Dewey were sure to do.

Louie was not in the mood to suggest any sort of extreme family activities like board games, nor did he want to watch the movie (but he did want to be near his siblings) and so he had retreated to the couch in the living room to fix some of his older binders with his sewing kit. Scrooge had the money (and rare enough, the willingness) to pay for new binders but Louie could be sentimental at times. He also didn’t like change and would rather put off having to get used to new binders for as long as he could, then have to wear new ones and live through the uncomfortable stages.

Uncle Scrooge had decided his time would be best spent in his office doing ‘work’ which was probably code for catching up on his favourite crime novels. The kids had found a stash of them in the Sun Chaser once and knew that their crotchety uncle was a big lover of the thriller genre. Scrooge rarely had free time between his work at the company and the adventures and thus he took advantage of any free time to sit back with a cup of tea and a good book.

Uncle Donald hovered in the background of the chosen living room, not actively getting in anyone’s way but not leaving either. He seemed on edge, but apparently couldn’t explain it when Huey had asked if everything was alright. He’d just mumbled that something felt weird and had excused himself from the conversation by turning away. He kept pacing back and forth and staring out the window at the sky where the moon was still visible.

It was an ordinary day, if a little more quiet than usual, when Della Duck re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and headed towards the mansion of McDuck. 

 

* * *

 

It appeared at first, to be a meteorite hurtling towards Earth, ready to bring about another species wide extinction. Its rapid appearance meant that everybody who knew about it had little time to react. In fact, few people had even noticed that there was a big lump of what was probably space rock about to crash into the planet. Those who were ignorant, or unworried, were those in the right. It wasn’t a meteorite that had been drawn into Earth’s gravity, but rather a makeshift spaceship programmed to land as close to McDuck Manor as possible without causing any major damage.

Due to the small reaction time offered, nobody was able to intercept the craft as it made its descent and so very soon after it had appeared in the first place, the wonky space ship made its landing. Its flight was controlled but it still caused a massive crater from its impact and an impressive shock wave rocketed outwards once contact was made. The somewhat impressive boom drew the attention of everyone in the vicinity.

You’d have to have been deaf to miss the sound of it from inside McDuck Manor. It didn’t matter that the TV had just let out an explosion of its own on screen. The boom the spaceship made had Huey screaming and clasping his hands over his ears, while Louie jerked so hard he stabbed his hand with a needle. Dewey froze for a moment, which was sort of surprising. Normally he’d have jerked into action instantly. But instead, he sat and stared and hoped.

“What was that?!” Donald yelled. He was clinging to the door frame to support himself.

“It came from the front yard.” Webby had already recovered from the minor tremor and was bouncing up and down. “Let’s go investigate.”

“I’d prefer it if we ran in the opposite direction to the large explosions.” Louie shoved his bleeding hand into his hoodie pocket.

“It wasn’t an explosion.” Webby dismissed him. “It was a collision.”

“And that’s somehow better?!”

Webby ignored Louie and ran to the front door. She threw it open before anybody else could protest and vanished out into the blinding daylight. The thick smell of smoke and fire quickly filled the house, thanks to Webby leaving the door open.

“Let’s go.” Dewey abruptly snapped of his frozen state.

Huey shook his head immediately. “No. Whatever is out there could be dangerous. We’re completely vulnerable right now.”

“How are we any more vulnerable here? This is our house. We have the home team advantage.”

“This isn’t a sports game! It isn’t a game at all. We don’t know what’s out there.”

“So we have to look!”

“No, we don’t!”

“We probably should check it out.” Donald broke off the argument. “Webby’s already out there and I bet Uncle Scrooge is as well. We’ll keep a low profile, I promise.”

“Right.” Louie sighed. “Like we always keep a low profile.”

Still, Huey and Louie followed Uncle Donald while Dewey bounced ahead. They could hear Webby and Uncle Scrooge’s voices from the yard, loud and vaguely panicked.

“That doesn’t sound good.” Huey clutched at his uncle unconsciously.

“Let’s just go back inside.” Louie suggested.

Dewey rolled his eyes good naturedly. “It’s fine. Here, I’ll prove it.” He dashed ahead into the smoke that the explosion had caused to billow up. He was gone from their sight in matter of seconds. 

“Dewey!”

“Stay back!” Donald barked (quaked?) an order at the remaining triplets and then followed after Dewey.

Louie and Huey exchanged a look.

“I was going to stay back…” Huey hummed thoughtfully.

“But now…” Louie finished.

Together, they ran into the smoke.

They were just in time to see a spluttering figure stumble from the fiery remains of some sort of high tech craft.

Dewey, Donald, Webby and Scrooge stood off to the side, all staring. Mrs Beakley was there too, obviously drawn to the noise like they all were.

“What are we looking at?” Louie said under his breath.

It was Dewey who answered the question he hadn’t even heard.

“Mum.”

 

* * *

 

Louie thought his mind had snapped in half at the sound of the word. With a single one syllable noun, Dewey had stolen the air from his lungs. It was like getting sucker punched to the chest, only somehow more painful. It took all his energy (which was not a lot) to stop himself from collapsing to the ground.

“That can’t be right.” He muttered to himself. “How? Why? It can’t be. It’s wrong. It has to be.”

“Della Duck.” Webby breathed, managing to be louder than Louie’s panicked babbling which, to be fair, was intended for only him to hear.

“Mum?” Huey echoed Dewey. Louie, still in denial, managed to follow his older brother’s gaze to the rapidly clearing smoke. A figure stood in the midst of it. Louie didn’t understand how Huey, Dewey and Webby could jump to conclusions so quickly. He could barely make out the person himself. He wasn’t going to make any assumptions until he had proof.

“I could use a hand.” An unfamiliar voice had Huey startling at Louie’s side. Louie spared him an anxious look before focusing back on the mysterious figure who’d just spoken.

The smoke had all but faded now, though it’s smell lingered painfully in the air.

“And maybe a leg.” The same voice said with a hint of humour that Louie couldn’t begin to understand. Whatever was going on here, none of it was making any sense to him.

He could see her. The smoke had cleared, and he could see _her._

He just couldn’t believe it.

She was standing there, hair long and bedraggled. The same brown jacket she’d had on in that picture they had of her was now old and patched and falling apart and yet she still wore it. Goggles perched on the top of her head, jammed in amongst all the hair. The huge bags under her eyes were offset with how exuberant she looked. And…and where there should have been two webbed feet, there was now only one. Or rather, there was one organic leg…and one metal leg.

“Kids?” The woman’s eyes bulged out as she stared at the ducks staring back at her. Louie wondered dimly if this many people getting all up in her face was going to be stressful. After all, she’d been only the moon for fifteen years. She probably wasn’t used to this much company. Then he wondered why he was even thinking that at all.

_Oh goody. I’m going into shock._

“Kids.” Della (because it was Della, as much as Louie couldn’t begin to comprehend it, it was Della, it was his mum) said again. “Hubert. Dewford. Llwellanne.”

Nope. Louie couldn’t do this. There was no way he could do this. How could he? Here was his mum, back from the moon after fifteen years of being gone from their life, and all she wanted to do was hug her two sons and her daughter. She’d probably thought about it constantly, dreamt about it as she was going to sleep. It was probably the fantasy of hugging her sons and daughter that kept her going.

And she couldn’t.

Because Louie was Louie.

He’d killed any chance she’d ever have of embracing her little baby girl.

He couldn’t do this.

Llewellyn ‘Louie’ Duck turned and ran.

 

* * *

 

“Louie!” Dewey shouted after their brother as he turned and ran back towards the house.

“Let him.” Huey said quietly. “This is different for him.”

Dewey paused to consider this and nodded. Huey gave a quick sigh of relief. There was only so many things he could deal with on one day and Dewey in a mood because Louie was being his typical sensitive self, coupled with his mum’s (holy Gizmo Duck his mum) return were not easy things to balance.

“Della.” Uncle Scrooge’s stunned voice managed to snap Huey back from the road of panic he was quickly starting to walk on. It was good to be able to focus on someone else’s shock instead of his own, since having a complete breakdown in front of his mum was top of the ‘things I never ever want to do’ list that he’d just created right now on the spot.

“Uncle Scrooge.” Tears welled up in Della’s (mum’s?) eyes and Huey felt some of his own start to fall.

“Yer back.” Uncle Scrooge breathed.

“Della.”  Donald took a step forward, and then another. “How…?”

“It took a while.” Della said breathlessly. “Would you call fifteen years a while? Yeah, that sounds about right. It took forever to fix up the ship and let me tell you, the added bugging from this space bug…heh, bugging from a space bug, anyway, the added bugging from that thing made everything so much harder. And like, running the ship on gold? Come on Uncle Scrooge, talk about a dumb idea. You know I don’t have any access to gold. Well I had my teeth. But how was I meant to know that?”

_Oh,_ Huey realised with a start. _She babbles like I do._

“And my children.” Della turned to Huey and Dewey and Huey was surprised to find himself flinching. “I missed you so, so much. There wasn’t a single day where I didn’t think about you. I made you birthday cakes! And-and sang you songs.”

“Wow.” Dewey stared at her with stars in his eyes. Huey could barely look at her at all.

“Why did Llwellanne run away?” Della rubbed at her arm in a nervous sort of way. It was the first sign of uncertainty that Huey had picked up on since she’d arrived. “That was Llwellanne, right? If you kept the colours I picked out for you, then that was Llwellanne. Did I do something wrong? Did I scare her?”

“Louie…” At a loss for words, Dewey looked at Huey and that was when it suddenly hit the oldest triplet.

Louie had run because Della had no idea what he was like and he didn’t know how to tell her that he wasn’t the kid she’d been imagining all those years. Huey realised with a jolt that it was going to be the same for him, and for Dewey.

Della had built up an image in her head of what her children would be like. She’d sung them songs and made them cakes. Now she’d come back to earth and she was going to realise just how wrong she was.

Huey knew how to do a lot of things. If he didn’t, he’d be in a constant state of panic. His world worked because he knew how _the_ world worked. He made sure he was prepared for anything. He built his entire life around knowing exactly what to do in any sort of situation. So it was sort of ironic that this was the one thing he’d never done any planning on.

“Della, come inside.” Uncle Scrooge cut in gently. Huey could have cried with relief. It took his mum’s questioning eyes away from him. The pressure was lifted…but only slightly.

“There’s a lot to tell you. You’ve been away for so long.” Uncle Donald added. There was nothing accusing about his tone. Huey couldn’t help but wonder what his voice would have sounded like if he’d said the same thing. A part of him knew that the anger and bitterness Donald lacked would have been at full force within him.

Scratch that. There was no _would have been’s_ about this situation. The anger and bitterness _was_ inside him.

Louie had done the smart thing.

And Huey should have gone with him.

 

* * *

 

Dewey had never felt such extreme joy in his life before. He’d never thought it was possible to feel this happy. He’d imagined this moment time and time again, constructed intricate daydreams of all the different ways this could play out and yet it was so much better than he’d thought. He felt like he could run around the world in ten minutes. He felt like he could scream so loud that deaf people could hear him. He felt like he could fill a swimming pool with all the happy tears he was sure to start crying any moment now.

He couldn’t understand why Louie had run off. Well, he sort of could, but there wasn’t time to think about that right now. Della Duck was back! His mum was back and after fifteen long years of missing her like crazy and struggling to understand and waking up from horrible nightmares and wondering if she was dead and was never coming back, he could finally put all those fears to rest. She was back and he could finally feel her arms around him holding tight, just like a mother was supposed to do.

Uncle Scrooge and Uncle Donald supported Della as they headed towards the house. Mrs Beakley had darted ahead, probably to prepare a place for her to lie down. Webby had gone with her at her encouragement. Dewey would’ve liked it if she’d stayed, but he didn’t have the time to argue with Beakley. His mum was back!

He bounced around her excitedly while Huey followed at a more sedate pace. Dewey wondered absently why his older brother wasn’t just as excited as he was, and then forgot all about it in favour of admiring Della’s cool robot leg. He had so many questions he needed to ask, he couldn’t begin to sort them out. Which one should he ask first? Would it be rude if he asked too many? Surely not!

“I can walk on my own.” Della was insisting when Dewey tuned back into the conversation. “You’re just looking for excuses to hug me.”

“Perish the thought.” Uncle Scrooge wrapped his arms tighter around her. Dewey was practically vibrating now. He couldn’t wait to do the same thing!

Webby appeared at the front door. “Granny’s in the parlour.”

“The parlour.” Della beamed. “It’s been a while since I got to sit in there.”

“It’s been a while for a lot of things.” Uncle Donald mumbled.

Dewey barely heard them. He was too focused on drinking in every single possible detail about his mum.

“Is Louie alright?” Webby fell into step next to him.

“Huh?” Dewey startled. “What do you mean?”

“Well he ran away.”

“He’ll come back.” Dewey flapped a hand dismissively.

“Dewey…” Webby paused. “Are you alright?”

“What do you mean?” Dewey had no idea what she was talking about. “I’m great!”

“Yeah.” Webby turned away. “I think that’s the problem.”

Dewey shrugged off his confusion. There was no time to worry about anything else when his mum was back! In fact, he couldn’t possibly do that. There was only one thought rattling around in his brain right now and it was mum, mum, mum, mum, mum!

Oh…

That might’ve been the problem.

Maybe.

“Hurry up.” Della said from the door. “I wanna meet my kids.”

The doubts flew from Dewey’s mind as easily as the wind tugged dead leaves free from dry branches. His mum was back and she wanted to meet him!

He didn’t stop to think that maybe he was the only one feeling this excited. And that maybe even his excitement was a lie.

 

* * *

 

With Della safely situated on one of the couches in the parlour and being checked over by Mrs Beakley who had the most medical training out of any of them, it was time for the questions to start flying. Everyone who’d gathered around Della had hundreds of the things and were desperate to let them slip out. Naturally, Scrooge burst in first.

“How are you feeling? What did you do to yer leg? Where were you?”

“I’m feeling fine. My leg got trapped under a bit of the rocket and was too crushed to heal. I was on the moon.” Della rattled off the answers easily.

Scrooge’s knees trembled and he nearly collapsed. “The moon? You mean you were that close this entire time?”

“Well I wouldn’t say the moon is close.” Della laughed weakly.

“Still…” Scrooge frowned. “I looked for you further out than that. I never thought…the moon…”

“Della.” Donald cut in. “Why? Why did you leave us? Your children were about to hatch. What made you think that it was the perfect time to steal a rocket?”

“I didn’t think it’d crash on me.” Della groaned dramatically. “Please don’t be mad at me, Donnie. I’ve had fifteen years to be mad at myself. Believe me.”

“But we have to talk about this.”

“I know.” Della agreed. “But not in front of the kids, okay.”

“If not now, then when?” Donald spluttered.

“I just can’t believe you made it home.” Dewey leapt in. “You flew a rocket perfectly into our front yard. That is so cool!”

“It was more of a crash.” Huey mumbled. He was hanging around the edges of the group, far enough back that Della’s line of sight was blocked and she couldn’t see him. It was a tactical move on his behalf, a way to stay out of her way until he sorted out how he was feeling.

“I’ve called for a doctor.” Mrs Beakley announced abruptly. “I may be a trained field medic but this is beyond my capabilities.”

“Is she dying?” Donald startled in alarm.

“Don’t jump to ridiculous conclusions.” Mrs Beakley said with a hint of fondness for the younger duck. “Della is not dying. It’s just that she has spent fifteen years on the moon. She may not be dying but she’s not a picture of health right now either.”

“I am sitting right here.” Della quacked with no heat to it. In fact, her voice was just as fond as Beakley’s. “And I’m perfectly fine.”

“Astronauts who come back to earth face serious repercussions because they have to readjust to the increased gravity.” Huey couldn’t help but rattle off automatically. “The moon is also unsuitable for maintaining any sort of biological matter unless protected. The Spear of Selene’s rations were definitely not capable of lasting fifteen years. I’d say Della is severely malnourished.

“Hubert.” Della breathed. “My baby. You’re so smart.”

Huey flinched.

Della’s face crumpled.

Dewey stared anxiously back and forth between the two.

This wasn’t going to be as easy as anyone had imagined.

 

* * *

 

Donald didn’t know where to direct his attention. His sister, his beautiful sister was finally back after fifteen years of not knowing if she was dead or alive. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and hold her for as long as he could. But there was also something else to consider before he got around to doing that (because he was going to be hugging Della eventually and nobody was going to be able to stop him) and that was the boys.

To them, Della was a stranger. She was their mum but they’d never actually met her. Like, at all. And she’d never met them. All Della had to go on was the names she’d picked out and the genders she’d decided to find out prior to their birth. To her, these children were Hubert, Dewford and Llwellanne.

That was why Louie had run away the moment Della had called for him. That was why Huey was so on edge and flinched whenever she so much as looked at him. That was why Dewey was mid-way through a breakdown and was only holding it at bay because had didn’t realise that was what was happening.

Because these children were not Hubert, Dewford and Llwellanne.

They were Huey, Dewey and Louie.

They weren’t the babies Della had probably been imagining. They were fifteen-year-old boys with their own unique personalities, skills and problems. There were things she wouldn’t know about them, things they’d have to tell her. And Donald knew that was what they were all so scared about. None of them were what society considered ‘normal’ and they were terrified at the thought of their mother finding out about that. They might have never met her but she was still their mum. Donald knew how much they cared about her. They cared what she thought about them.

Huey, Dewey and Louie thought that Della wouldn’t like them, because they weren’t the perfect little children they expected her to want.

Donald didn’t really know what to do about that. Louie was already gone. Huey looked like he was seconds from following him. And Dewey was barely holding it together. If he could, he’d father them up in his arms and reassure them that Della would love them no matter what. But that was a little easier said than done, considering the circumstances.

“Donald.” Della struggled to sit up on the couch only for Uncle Scrooge to gently push her back down. “Donnie, my kids.”

“Della, you need to stay calm.” Donald hastened to say. “You can’t overwork yourself until the doctor checks you out.”

“Nonsense.” Della grumbled. “They’re my kids and I’ll get worked up about them whenever I want to.”

That seemed to be the tipping point for Huey. He spun on his webbed feet and dashed out of the parlour. Donald could hear him thudding up the stairs. He’d probably gone to find Louie. Good. Right now, they needed each other.

“Hubert.” Della’s face grew pale. “Donald, what’s going on?”

“Della, lass.” Uncle Scrooge stepped in. “Let’s get you something to eat and drink. What do you feel like? Tea? Scones?”

“I feel like knowing what’s going on in my own house.” Della snapped.

Now that Dewey was left alone without any of his brothers to back him up, it quickly became clear to Donald that his tentative control was starting to seriously slip. He started to tremble uncontrollably and took a few steps away from Della. Donald knew that Dewey wanted nothing more than to run after his brothers. But Donald also knew that Dewey wanted to save face in front his mother. He would force himself to stay and fall apart even as he tried to stay together.

Donald needed to give him an out.

“Kids, maybe you could give us adults a bit of privacy.” He said gently to Webby and Dewey. “There’s some things we need to talk about and you don’t really need to hear it.”

Dewey opened his mouth, probably to protest, but Webby cut him off. “Great idea Uncle Donald! Let’s go Dewey.” She tugged him away and out of the parlour. Then, her sheepish head popped back in briefly. “Nice to meet you Auntie Della. Can I call you that? Uncle Donald lets me call him Uncle Donald. You know what, wrong time, wrong place. Okay, bye.” She vanished again.

The moment they were gone for real, Della shot Donald a withering glare. “Why won’t you let me see my kids properly?”

“Because Della, they’re not sure they want to see you.” Donald sighed. He really just wanted to be happy Della was back and nothing more. Still, there was nothing he wouldn’t do for his kids.

“What does that mean?” Della nearly exploded. Only a restraining hand from Uncle Scrooge on her shoulder kept her sitting down.

“Della.” Donald sat at the end of the couch and reached for one of her hands. Angry and frustrated as she was, she still let him hold her. It sent shivers up his spine, being able to touch his sister after fifteen long years. “Della, they’re not who you think they are. You left only knowing three eggs. You never got a chance to see them grow into who they are now.”

“Don’t.” Della cut him off sharply. There were tears in her eyes. “Don’t remind me. I was a shitty mother, Donald. But please don’t say it. I know, okay!”

“That’s not what I’m trying to say.” Donald flapped his hands, flustered.

“Then what are you trying to say?”

“They’re not normal!” Donald exploded with all his usual finesse. His anger issues would never let him be. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mrs Beakley leave and Uncle Scrooge back away into the corner, giving them space but keeping them under his watch.

“What does that mean?” Della spat. The tears in her eyes were falling now. Her anger was dampened by her heartbreak.

Donald felt all his rage leave him in one startling swoop. It left him drained and shaking, like Dewey had been.

“Della.” He said quietly. It was a luxury to be able to say her name and know she’d respond. “They’re not exactly part of the social norm. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone in this house loves them and supports them for who they are. But they’re afraid to tell you who they are. They’re afraid to let you down. They’re afraid you won’t like them.”

Della’s tears increased. “But I wouldn’t. You know I wouldn’t, Donnie. I would never.”

“Yeah.” Donald agreed. “I know that. But they don’t. They’ve never met you, Della. You ran off before they hatched. How are they supposed to know how you’ll feel about them?!”

“Oh…” Della recoiled. “I just always thought, that when I’d get back, we’d just all fit together. Like we’d never been apart, you know? I guess it was stupid of me to feel that way. I just kept thinking of them as children. But they’re teenagers now. It’s not fair for me to just expect them to love me.”

“That’s why you have to make them.” Uncle Scrooge piped up from the corner. When Della and Donald turned to look at him, he shrugged. “The lads and I had a huge falling out while you were gone. And before that, there was tension between us. I had to work to make them trust me. That’s what you’ll have to do, Della. Yer the most stubborn girl I know. You can do it.”

“Yeah.” Della stared dreamily at the roof and Donald knew she was thinking of the children up there, hiding away.

“They do want to love you.” Donald said quietly. “It’s just hard. They’ve been through a lot, Della. It’s not my place to tell you, but it’s gotten bad in the past. Really bad.”

Della’s eyes flashed with something Donald easily recognised. He’d seen it in himself constantly since the day he realised the duty of caring for the triplets fell to him.

Parental instinct. That desire to do anything to protect your kids.

“Help me up.” She demanded. “Doctor be damned. I have some triplets to see.”

 

* * *

 

When Louie had run away from Della Duck, he’d ended up in his bed curled up under the covers, trying not to cry. Running through his mind was a constant list of reasons why he was terrible and sucked and deserved to die. He was terrified to face his mum and show her what a disappointment her only daughter had become while she was away. He wanted her to love her, but how could he expect that of her when he didn’t even _like_ himself.

As he’d laid there, shaking from a cold that from inside and not out, the door had burst open and Huey had torn in. Louie knew exactly what to do and had lifted the blanket an inch as an invitation. Huey had needed no further encouragement before diving under the covers and cuddling up to Louie.

“Sorry I didn’t come with you before.” He’d whispered.

“S’kay,”

“How long do you think it’ll be until Dewey’s here?”

Not long at all. Less than three minutes later, the door was kicked open again and Louie lifted the blanket once more. Dewey and Webby had taken up the offer instantly and now the four kids were huddled on Louie’s bed under his blanket. Only Webby had left briefly to fetch Huey’s special weighted blanket from the top bunk and cover them all in it.

There, they waited.

“I just wanted to be excited.” Dewey said sadly. “But now I don’t know what to feel. I’ve been imagining this day for so long and now that it’s actually happening, it’s like I can’t think.”

“I’m scared.” Huey confessed. “What if she hates us? We’re not exactly normal kids. She might not like who we are.”

Louie said nothing but the brothers could feel the sensations from his frantic nodding of agreement.

“I know this isn’t my place to speak up.” Webby said tentatively. “But I don’t think Della Duck is like that. You saw her leg, right? Surely she wouldn’t be dismissive towards disabilities and disorders.”

“You’d be surprised.” Louie muttered darkly. “It can happen.”

“She’s your mum.” Webby pointed out. “They’re meant to love you unconditionally.”

“And yet again, you’d be surprised. Remember…well, you know how toxic some families can be.” Louie said, a touch more gentle than he would have been had he not sort of brought up Lena.

“But…” Webby trailed off.

“I know we’re not thinking rationally here.” Huey sighed. “But it’s not like any of us have brains that are good at that.”

“Fair.” Webby had to laugh a little at that. She and her adoptive brothers (it wasn’t legal yet but papers be damned, they were siblings) did not function well when it came to thinking logically about things.

“We’ve never met her before.” Dewey sniffed. “How are we meant to know what she’s like?”

“The only way to know is to meet her. We can’t stay up here forever.” Huey said, but he made no effort to move.

“Easier said than done.” Louie summed up.

“She’ll probably come to us.” Dewey half-joked.

As if he’d summoned her with the joke, the door was kicked open yet again and a voice that was slowly becoming familiar spoke up.

“Kids? We need to talk.”

Louie was proud that he managed to stifle his scream of surprise.

Dewey on the other hand, did not.

 

* * *

 

The boy’s bedroom probably wasn’t the greatest place for a serious heart to heart with a mother who’d been absent since before birth, but they did their best to get everyone comfortable. Donald helped Della settle into a beanbag while the four kids perched on Louie’s bed. Scrooge slunk into a corner to ‘supervise’ and Donald hovered at Della’s shoulder, ready to help out if she suddenly felt faint or collapsed.

“So…” Huey broke the uncomfortable since that had settled as everyone found a place to sit or stand. “What do we need to talk about?”

“A lot of things.” Della looked just as nervous as the boys. “I’ve been gone for fifteen years. I imagine you have questions. I certainly do.”

“You go first.” Louie said from the depths of his hood. He’d pulled it up over his head so his entire face was masked in shadow.

“First of all, I’d love to know your names.” Della smiled softly.

“You named us.” Huey puzzled.

“I did pick out names for you. But names change and people change. It’s not fair for me to just assume you go by what I called you before.”

The boys relaxed a little. It didn’t sound like Della was going to get angry over them straying from the names she’d picked out.

“Huey.” Huey said shortly, but not unkindly.

“Dewey.” Dewey had produced his lucky fidget cube and was rapidly pressing the buttons at a frantic pace.

“Louie.” Louie kept his head down and his eyes averted.

“I love your nicknames.” Della beamed. It was a slow step but it was a start. At least none of them had refused to talk. “I gotta admit, the names I picked out for you are a little stuffy and hard to say.”

Dewey perked up. “And I can never find Dewford on those personal merch items.”

Della laughed. “Sorry about that.”

“Can we ask a question now?” Huey wanted to know.

“Of course.” Della said instantly.

“What do you think about…” Huey hesitated. “About stuff like mental health issues and learning disabilities and such.”

Della did not hesitate for a moment. She tapped her leg and flashed the boys a big smile. “There is nothing wrong with people who have those kind of things. And anybody who thinks that there is and looks down on people because of it are big stinky uh…jerks.”

“You were going to swear.” Donald whispered into her ear.

“Was not. Shut up.” She hissed back.

“That’s good.” Webby brought the attention back to the kids. She gave Della a kind smile. “I’m Webby, by the way. Granny is Uncle Scrooge’s housekeeper.”

“Beakley’s girl.” Della snapped her fingers. “I thought I recognised you. Saw you once when you were a baby.”

“You did?” Dewey shot an envious look at Webby. She shrugged apologetically.

“Anyway.” Huey cut in quietly. “We have some stuff to tell you, mum. It’s not going to be easy to say but it’s not like we can keep it a secret.” He shot a pointed look at Uncle Scrooge. “I’m…I’m autistic.”

“I have ADHD.”

“Depression.”

Silence.

Silence that lingered for far too long. On the bed, the boys tensed, getting ready to run if things went bad.

“Kids.” Della sat up a little straighter in the beanbag, supported by her twin. “Thank you for telling me. I hope you know this isn’t going to change the way I see you.”

“And what way is that?!” Louie burst out suddenly. “You don’t even know us! You ran off before we were even born. How could you possible see us in any way except the kids you wanted?”

“Louie.” Dewey gasped, surprised but not angry at the outburst.

“He’s right.” Huey agreed. “How do you see us? How can you say us being autistic and having ADHD and depression won’t change the way you see us, when it’s literally the only thing you know about us is our names?”

There were tears in Della’s eyes but they didn’t fall.

“I know some things.” She said. “I know that Huey is the oldest and Louie is the youngest. I know that you all care for each other greatly, enough that you would come and hide here with each other. I know you don’t know how to feel about me, and I understand. I do.”

“But it’s not enough.” Dewey said angrily. “There’s so much more to that. And you missed out cause you ran away.”

“There wasn’t a single day where I didn’t think about you.” Della shook her head. “I wasn’t running away. I was doing it for you.”

“Yeah, we really benefited from it.” Louie snorted sarcastically.

“I didn’t mean to get stuck. All I wanted to do was get home to you. My precious baby boys and my darling girl.”

That did it for Louie. He stood up and tugged his hood off so that he could glare at his mum.

“I’m sorry you have to find out about this but you have to know. You don’t have a daughter, mum. I’m sorry. I might as well have killed the girl you named Llwellanne. I’m _Llewellyn_ but only because I thought it’d be wrong to just toss away the name you gave me. But more than that, I’m Louie and I’m a boy. I’m your son.” He said it all in a rush, the words tripping and tumbling over each other. When he was finished, the hood came right back and he sunk down onto his bed where Huey and Dewey instantly wrapped him into a hug.  

“I…” Della seemed at a loss for words. She looked between Scrooge and Donald, and then finally settled her eyes back on Louie. Again, the boys tensed. Webby reached into her pocket where her smoke bombs were, ready to cause a diversion if she needed to. If Della didn’t accept Louie, there was no stopping the kids (teenagers now, really) from fleeing.

“Della…” Donald said warningly. He shouldn’t have worried. Della fixed Louie with the biggest smile she could muster up.

“Triplet boys, huh? I bet you get into all kinds of trouble. I’m sorry I ever called you by the wrong name. I said it before. Names change, and people change and sometimes it’s both and that’s alright. It’s so good to meet you, Louie.”

Louie’s body sagged with relief. He let out a choked sob, and then another. It shouldn’t have been normal for him to expect the worst and then react in such a relieved way to what should just be common decency, but he couldn’t help it. All his fears, the nightmares that had him waking up screaming, the self-doubt and loathing centred around what Della Duck would think if she knew…it could all be put to rest now. Or at least, they’d certainly lessen. Louie knew fears didn’t just go away. But they faded. And that was enough.

“So you’re okay with this stuff?” Huey asked anxiously. “You don’t care that we’re not…exactly…normal?”

“What kind of mother would I be if I did care.” Della shook her head. “The only thing I care about is you boys. I care about you so, so much.”

“We aren’t like, good kids all the time.” Dewey admitted. “Because of all our baggage and stuff, if that’s what you wanna call it. We have bad days and we sometimes can’t really control what we do and it really isn’t easy to care for us.”

“Who cares?” Della burst out before either of the other adults in the room could jump in to correct Dewey. “There’s no way that would make me not love you. Every day on the moon was so hard but I fought it so I could get back to you. Now that I’m here, I want to make it up to you. I’ll do anything. Just please…could you give me a chance?”

The three boys exchanged looks. A conversation was happening between them, without any words needing to be spoken. As they raised eyebrows and twitched lips, Della grew more and more outwardly anxious. Her metal foot tapped frantically and she started to twist her hair through her fingers.

Finally, Huey, Dewey and Louie nodded to each other and turned back to face her.

“We’re still upset.” Huey started. “Because we don’t understand why you left us before you’d even met us.”

“And we’re scared.” Dewey continued. “Because you’ve said who we are doesn’t change anything but you might change your mind once you see the bad days.”

“And we’re angry.” Louie finished. “Because you being gone has caused a lot of problems for us and our family.”

It did not sound good.

“But…” Huey added. “We’re still going to give you a chance.”

“Huh?” Della’s eyes shone with hope. “But how you feel…”

“At the end of the day, we missed you. We missed you so much.” Louie said nervously.

“All we ever wanted was a chance to hug you.” Dewey looked up from his fidget cube. “So for now, can we just forget all this drama and do that?”

It was Della’s turn to let out a few relieved sobs.

This whole thing, with Della returning after running after all those years ago, was far from fixed. There were still things she didn’t know that the kids were afraid to tell her. There were still a lot of things she didn’t know anything about at all, since she’d been absent from the Duck family life for so long. There was resentment and fear and anger, all present and mingling together. Donald and Scrooge had yet to have their turn to confront Della about what her leaving had done to them. She hadn’t even been checked over by a doctor yet.

This was a fresh, raw wound.

But when Huey, Dewey and Louie fell into her arms, for just a few moments, that all fell away. It was just them and their mum.

And for someone who’d been alone on the moon for fifteen years, she gave really good hugs.

**Author's Note:**

> And it's done! I really hope I did a good job capturing this moment in the family. I started writing this well before 'Whatever happened to Della Duck' came out but have kept putting it on hold because I struggled to understand how everyone would be feeling in that moment. With some awesome help from a wise friend, I pushed through and here we are.
> 
> Please leave comments and kudos if you enjoyed this!!!! And please leave suggestions if you want to about future story ideas for this series. All the support I've gotten so far has helped me to keep writing this and I'd really appreciate knowing your thoughts on these fics. 
> 
> If you ever wanna chat about Duck Tales, you can find me at ToshiTophChan on tumblr!
> 
> Thanks!


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